Classical Numismatic Group, LLC
Electronic Auction 324 9 April 2014
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KINGS of PONTOS. Mithradates VI Eupator. Circa 120-63 BC. AV Stater (17mm, 8.41 g, 12h). Pergamon mint. Dated month 1 of year 211 of the Seleukid Era (87/6 BC). Diademed head right / Stag grazing left; star-in-crescent to left, AIΣ (year) and monogram to right, A (month) in exergue; all within Dionysiac wreath of ivy and fruit. Callataÿ –; HGC 7, –; DCA –. VF, fine cleaning scratches. Unpublished date.
Mithradates was the Hellenistic monarch par excellence: his career was driven by megalomaniacal ambitions which led to murderous assaults upon family and followers and disastrous foreign adventures against superior forces. His idealized portraiture attempts to mimic the gods with its bold staring gaze and unruly, free-flowing hair, but at its most extreme is a reference to hysteria in its Dionysiac sense. The wreath of ivy on the reverse reinforces Mithradates' link with the god as well as making a connection with the cistaphoric coinage that circulated in the area. The stag probably represents the civic center of Ephesos, part of the new Pontic Kingdom. His empire collapsed before the armies of Sulla and Lucullus, and Mithradates ended his own life as an exile in the far region of the Crimea, pursued to the end by vengeful Romans and family.
Mithradates was the Hellenistic monarch par excellence: his career was driven by megalomaniacal ambitions which led to murderous assaults upon family and followers and disastrous foreign adventures against superior forces. His idealized portraiture attempts to mimic the gods with its bold staring gaze and unruly, free-flowing hair, but at its most extreme is a reference to hysteria in its Dionysiac sense. The wreath of ivy on the reverse reinforces Mithradates' link with the god as well as making a connection with the cistaphoric coinage that circulated in the area. The stag probably represents the civic center of Ephesos, part of the new Pontic Kingdom. His empire collapsed before the armies of Sulla and Lucullus, and Mithradates ended his own life as an exile in the far region of the Crimea, pursued to the end by vengeful Romans and family.